ISG bucks the trend with record-breaking year

ISG is brushing aside concerns about Brexit uncertainty with plans to grow profits by up to 15% this year after delivering a record-breaking 2018.

Strong growth at both fit-out and engineering services divisions helped to drive revenue up by nearly a third to £2.2bn and deliver a 36% jump in underlying pre-tax profit to £38.5m.

Paul Cossell, chief executive, said he was optimistic about achieving further revenue growth this year of around 10% on the back of an expanded £1.4bn order book.

Fit-out work surpassed construction for the first time after booking a record year with a mix of both large London commercial jobs and smaller orders for the below 50,000 sq ft sector through its specialist Agility business.

Construction’s performance was dampened by the southern region, which fell short of revenue target for the year, due to project delays. But the other two divisions Western; and northern England/Scotland performed well on the back of public sector work wins, lifting divisional revenue by 8% to £520m.

Despite growing concern in the market about future building workloads, ISG said it entered the year with a forward construction order book up 22% to nearly £500m.

Cossell said: “Set against the wider sector backdrop of high-profile corporate failure and reversing financial performance for many UK-based main contractors, ISG’s record results demonstrate the efficacy of our technology and specialism-led approach.

He added that ISG had won some of its biggest projects across its core sectors including offices, technology, science and health, and education.

Also for the first time, it delivered significant projects in the logistics and distribution sector for clients including a major internet-based retailer.

Looking ahead Cossell said construction would focus on retaining repeat business and increasing project sizes.

The bumper year saw ISG, which now employs 2,800 staff worldwide, boost its net cash to £77m from £64m previously.

ISG operating divisions
	Revenue	change	Underlying profit	change
UK fit-out	£609m	54%	£10.5m	61%
UK construction	£520m	8%	£5.7m	-16%
Engineering services	£469m	60%	£11.7m	67%
UK retail	£322m	22%	£5.7m	26%
Overseas	£317m	15%	£4.9m	44%

from Construction Enquirer http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2019/04/02/isg-bucks-the-trend-with-record-breaking-year/

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